Describe a time when your workload was heavy and how you handled it? Interview Question and Answer. This is a good question to have rehearsed beforehand as most companies will want to know that you are capable of working under pressure should the situation arise. A lot of people might not be able to have real life example of this, so try and think over your last jobs and think of a situation that MIGHT have occurred. If you have not been employed before then you may need to use a personal example, which I will illustrate below. The important thing to remember when answering this is to make it not sound like you thought it was TOO stressful. Show that you handled it calmly and carried out your duty!
Related: Describe a Difficult Work Situation – Project and How You Overcame It
Some people write lists are part of being organised and prioritise the tasks that need doing using good time management skills to ensure that the correct amount of time is spent on each thus getting the workload done and to time.
Not only is the interviewer looking to see what you will answer but they are more importantly looking to see your reaction to the question and how you deal with it, it is all part of behavioural interviewing techniques.
Usually you are being asked this question because more often that not your workload will be higher than you expect due to certain factors of most business, economical climate, staff shortages etc so I think you can be assured that the business will be fast paced and you will be required to keep up and keep going.
You will be expected to give a scenario about when you have had a particularly busy time in a work environment so you need to think back to previous roles and when this happened, was it at Christmas if you were in retail for example and how did you handle it and get through the busy period still maintaining decorum.
An example in this situation could be that you worked in a busy fashion store at Christmas as a temp and there was a staff shortage and you had to work longer hours than your contract to help keep the shop covered and open over its busiest period. At this time you viewed it as a challenge and you were pleased that you were able to work hard and help.
Example Answers
“As I have not actually been employed before, I would have to give you an example of whilst I was still at university. I had almost finished my dissertation which was due to be handed in in five days, and I had spent over two weeks writing, all that was left was to proof read. My halls of residence were then broken into, and my computer stolen. I had to re-write the entire dissertation in five days. I managed by enlisting a friend to reprint all the research material I needed whilst I wrote the bits I remembered from memory. I took a ten minute break every hour to avoid getting fatigued and managed to deliver it on time.”
“Whilst working at my previous job in an advertising graphics department, I had already delivered a signed off piece to a client, who then contacted me urgently needing to change the graphic as it contained an error they had previously missed. They had changed their phone number but the old one had been provided to me, and they even signed the work off before one of their employees spotted the error. They needed the graphic for printing in two days’ time, and I had other clients that required attention. I was able to look at the deadlines of the other projects I had, and managed to use my time effectively in order to be able to make this last minute change to keep my errant client happy, and still complete my other works on time.”